Archive for the ‘tensions’ Category

Pakistan said Tuesday that India had moved troops toward their shared border, following Islamabad’s own redeployment of forces toward the frontier amid tensions over the Mumbai attacks.

Indian officials would not comment on the claim, but denied another allegation that they had activated forward air bases.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the claims in a televised address that included overtures toward India to help improve the frayed ties between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who have already fought three wars in the past six decades.

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer

“I understand India has activated their forward air bases, and I think if they are deactivated, then it will be a big positive signal,” Qureshi said. “Similarly, as far as their ground forces are concerned and which have been deputed and deployed, if they relocated to their peacetime positions, then it will also be a positive signal.”

Pakistani activists carry replica of missiles as they shout anti-Indian slogans during a protest rally in Karachi on December 14. Pakistan’s powerful army chief called Monday for an easing of tensions with India, the military said, one month after the Mumbai attacks sent ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours into a tailspin.(AFP/File/Rizwan Tabassum)

Qureshi further offered to send a high-level delegation to New Delhi to help investigate the November assault in Mumbai, which killed 164 people.

The foreign minister, who was among several Pakistani leaders who have been calling for calm in the region, reiterated that India had not turned over any evidence backing up its claims that Pakistani militants had staged the Mumbai assault.

However, he noted that Indian officials had said that was because their own investigation was not over.